I have been wanting to visit Sanmotoonge Cafe after hearing about how it is situated on a hilltop, and how unique it's been. If you have not yet known, it is also used in the filming of Coffee Prince. It isn't the cafe that the male and female leads work at, but one part of the cafe was used to film the study room of one guy lead. It's been ages since I watched Coffee Prince and it wasn't the most memorable K-drama that I've watched, so I remember very little about it.
Okay, so the nearest busstop to Sanmotoonge Cafe is at Buam-dong. Don't ask me where is Buam-dong, I honestly cannot remember how I got there. I took a bus, dropped off, and switched to another bus to get to the Buam-dong busstop. And even so, I was following the lead of HyoEun, my Korean friend and even she was googling the route. However, I am sure many other blogs provide the route there. Google it! :)
Well, at least I know the picture below is your starting point!
And here are some photos that you can see midway, to know that you are still "on track". There are road signs every now and then to lead you to the place. So just keep walking straight until you see a road sign. At every possible turn, they have a sign there, so I don't see how you will get lost.
It's a long route up!! It was a gentle slope but I think we took about 20 minutes up from the busstop (at least). We were walking at pretty normal speed, so it isn't that we are slow.
An example of the road sign. Would definitely help if you can read Hangeul. If you can't, I am not too sure how I can help you. Memorise these words "산모퉁이"!!!
Some of the beautiful views of the mountain on the way up!
And finally, you should see this beautiful building when you reached! :)
And this is the view I have come for! A pity there wasn't enough space to accommodate us outside + we were too warm from the hike up to sit in alfresco area too. But this view is amazing.
We ordered a couple of cakes, green tea latte, caramel mocha, yuzu tea etc. The blueberry cheesecake was good in my opinion! But not something out of the world. Similarly for the yuzu tea. Yuzu tea is just... yuzu tea. Most of the drinks were too sweet though. Drinks cost about 7,000won here, which is pretty much on the high side for a cafe. You can easily get coffees at 4,000 or 5,000won, and similarly the cakes were 8,000won and up if I remember correctly.
The cakes and drinks were good, but every other cafe could easily serve these up. I don't think the drinks can justify the reason why we should get up here. I would say, come here for the ambience and the view.
Last picture, this is the highest level of the cafe, and apparently this is the filming site I was mentioning. I have totally no idea when this place appeared in the drama though. :P
Greetings Liz!
ReplyDeleteYour posts on the places you have been are definitely interesting! It gave me some ideas for my planning!
On a side note, may I know what was your budget for the living expenses and trips? Excluding the air tickets, course fees and other mandatory stuff. Kinda wanna know how much cash to bring along when I go there for ISS 2014 :)
Hey there! Glad to know that :)
ReplyDeleteI brought about S$2,800 if I remembered correctly. That's for 46 days, including my initial 1 week of travelling around Seoul and Jeju, and also my last 10 days of road trip around Korea. Besides food, the next biggest expense comes from the bus rides across provinces and cities, or the KTX ride.
For meals wise, my budget was about ~S$30 = 25,000won for 3 meals a day. Meals in school cost about 5,000won, and you can find most food at that range just outside school as well. Breakfast costs only 2,000won or so if you grab a bread from Paris Baguette, or a toast from Isaac Toast. I usually spend more on dinners if I explore places. ^^
Also, for trips wise, if you are travelling to the locations that I've introduced within Seoul, it shouldn't take you much. Bus rides and subway rides cost on average 1,000-2,000won. It would be more expensive if you are travelling out of Seoul. KTX rides can cost up to 50,000won (depending on the distance you're travelling!)
Hope that helps! :)